and her team from the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® in Memphis, Tenn., had 65 students at the CRS 200 Course. Their marketing efforts included:
- The Council's blast e-mail service
- Brochures in the lobby of their board office
- Information in their e-News (audience of 500)
- Information in their monthly newsletter (audience of 500)
- Direct mail brochure sent to 300 GRIs
Their Education Committee volunteered a lot of their time during the course, which made registration, breakfast, product sales, exams and clean up run very smoothly.
The facility was close to hotels and restaurants, and easily accessible from the airport (an important factor which draws a lot of out-of-state students).
They provided breakfast and snacks for all the students on both days.
and her team from the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association in Madison, Wis., hosted the CRS 200, CRS 201, CRS 202, CRS 206 Courses and co-sponsored CRS 207 with the Wisconsin CRS Chapter with an average of 95 students per class. Their marketing efforts included:
- Direct mail brochure mailed to 4,000 REALTORS®
- Council's blast e-mails (audience of 2,000)
- Association's newsletter (audience of 12,000)
- Information on their Web site
- Telemarketing to local brokers and agents
- Camera-ready art for the course on their Web site, so that local boards could download and promote the courses to their members
There was a reception following the Course's first day, so attendees could socialize, network and unwind from their day.
They called up local businesses (both real estate related and non-real estate related) and offered them "booth space" at their course. In exchange for a fee, these businesses could advertise their products and services at the course.
The Wisconsin REALTORS® Association incorporated specific CRS Courses as part of the GRI Designation (the designation from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of REALTORS®). The CRS 200, 201 and 202 Courses are all part of the GRI Course #1, #2 and #3 curriculum respectively in Wisconsin. Students earn credit toward the GRI and CRS Designation. This has proven to be an outstanding selling point when marketing their CRS Courses.
Director of Education and Communications with the Sacramento Association of REALTORS® sponsored two successful Courses in 2004 and has another course coming up in the fall. Her first course, CRS 204 - Creating Wealth Through Residential Real Estate Investments had 78 students and her second, CRS 206 - Technologies to Advance Your Business had 64. And how did Judy get so many students? Did the Sacramento AOR have a crazy marketing scheme or do anything out of the ordinary? Not at all! Judy just followed some tried and true techniques and came away with two successful courses.
- Submit CRS Course Contract by the deadline to be included in the CRS Course Catalog.
- Use the Council's free blast e-mail service (to send e-mail notification to CRS members and students in up to four states).
- Implement an Early-Bird discount to encourage students to sign up early.
- Put out fliers for upcoming Courses at each of your previous Courses.
- Make announcements at each Association meeting.
- Post the Course on your Web site as early as possible.
- Send out weekly e-mails to your members. (Repetition keeps the course in their minds.)
, with the Tarrant County CRS Sub-Chapter, recently held a CRS 210 (Building an Exceptional Customer Service Referral Business) Course in Fort Worth, Texas, with nearly 80 students. Brown provided breakfast, snacks, lunch and a reception for the students! With that many students, costs could get out of control. To save money, Brown had each meal, event or snack sponsored exclusively by one sponsor. That sponsor is then given the opportunity to speak for a couple of minutes at the beginning of the session they are sponsoring.
According to Brown, “Our reasons for providing breakfast, lunch and snacks are threefold. It helps keep the class on schedule by keeping the students onsite. It not only helps to defray the registration, travel and hotel costs for the students, but also enables them to network and bond more closely. We also try to have an early evening ‘Meet & Greet’ event, such as our wine and cheese reception on the first day to allow our local Subchapter members to meet the instructor and provide another networking opportunity for our local members and the students. Our local REALTOR® community is always well represented at our CRS Courses. By sponsoring a Course, our vendors also have the opportunity to network with the area REALTORS®. It's a win-win-win situation for all!”
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